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The Clay Hole University · Trimming, Handles and Drying

Scoring and Slipping a JoinPrintable pottery guide

The whole join, in the order you make it: what a join really is, the nine moves, what to brush on and what does nothing, how to make slip from your own clay, and how to dry it so it is still shut when it comes out of the kiln.

$5.005 guides, 1 free
  • Skill level: Beginner
  • 26 printable pages
  • 7 video picks
  • 8-question quiz + answer key

Flip through the free sample
  • Instant download
  • Prints on any printer
  • The lesson stays free
The printable, at a glance

What is the Scoring and Slipping a Join printable guide?

It is scoring and slipping on paper: why a join is a weld and not glue, the six things every join needs, the nine moves in order, what to brush into a join and what does nothing, how to make joining slip from your own clay, four kinds of join and the quirk of each, where joins are really lost, and eight ways a join fails with what caused each. Built to be printed, kept at the table and marked up as you go.

Prefer to read it online first? The “Scoring and Slipping a Join” lesson is free, and always will be.

  • 26printable pages, US Letter
  • 8quiz questions, with a full answer key
  • 7hand-picked videos, each with a QR code
  • 16glossary terms in plain language
  • 2workbook pages you fill in yourself
For the handle that came off in the kiln

Most joins are decided long before the kiln

A handle comes off in the bisque and it feels like bad luck. It almost never is. The join was already failing on the drying shelf, and the firing only made it obvious.

Everything that decides it is small and easy to skip with wet hands: two pieces at the same wetness, scoring you can catch a fingernail in on both faces, slip from the same clay brushed down into the grooves, a bead squeezing out all the way around, and a seam blended until it is gone. Two of those, the slip and the blend, are the ones people skip most, because both look finished long before they are.

The guide puts the nine moves in the order you do them, with the numbers you need beside them: how deep to score, how thick the slip should be, how long to bag a piece. It ends with a page to log every join and how it came out.

Look inside

Real pages, for a table with a bucket of slip on it

These are actual pages from the guide, shown here with the sample watermark.

  • Page 3 of the “Scoring and Slipping a Join” printable guide: before you begin, shown with the sample watermark
    Before you beginOne page before you touch clay: what you will learn, what to have on the table, what is worth knowing, the common pitfalls, and what a good join looks like.
  • Page 5 of the “Scoring and Slipping a Join” printable guide: what is actually happening, shown with the sample watermark
    What is actually happeningThe diagram page: a join in three stages, pressed, prepared and welded, with a six point key that says what each part of the drawing is doing.
  • Page 14 of the “Scoring and Slipping a Join” printable guide: when it goes wrong, shown with the sample watermark
    When it goes wrongThe start of the eight ways a join fails, each with what caused it, and a video note on drying without cracks, so the next join starts from the cause rather than a guess.
  • Page 19 of the “Scoring and Slipping a Join” printable guide: join log, shown with the sample watermark
    Join logA log to write in: how wet each piece was, what you did at the table, how it dried and how it came out. A few rows in, you can see which move to be fussier about.
Flip through the free sampleTen pages, free, no email required.
Why this one belongs on paper

Your hands are covered in slip

A join is made with both hands full of clay, and the moves come one after another. Paper suits that.

  • The moves are numbered

    Nine moves, in order, each with its reason. You can look up move four with a wet thumb and find it in a second.

  • It holds still

    A page stays where you put it while you press and blend. It does not lock its screen, and it does not mind slip.

  • A place to write the result

    A join is only proven once the piece is out of the kiln, so the log has a column for how it came out. The joins that held and the ones that opened tell you what to change.

  • One card for the table

    The join card has the moves, the numbers and what a break tells you on a single page. It pins up beside the table.

How this one is built

Rebuilt for paper, not printed from a web page

Every guide in the series is set from scratch for print. Here is what that meant for this one.

  • Video notes that say what the video shows

    Seven notes in the free lesson described things the videos do not show. We checked each against the video’s own description, chapter list and frames, and rewrote them in the guide.

  • A repair claim that matches its label

    The lesson said a mender repair could survive a glaze firing. The product’s own page says to ask a staff member before firing anything repaired with it, so the guide says that too.

  • Written for any studio

    Where the free lesson says here or the studio, the guide says The Clay Hole, so a reader working somewhere else knows which line is a Clay Hole habit and which is a rule of the craft.

  • A quiz that explains itself

    A short quiz, and an answer key that gives the reason behind every answer rather than only the letter.

  • Codes that keep working

    Every link is a short Clay Hole address. If a video moves, we repoint the address and your printed copy still goes to the right place.

  • A card for the table

    The join card is the whole job on one sheet: what to check before you join, what to do at the join, what to do after, and how to read a break.

Why the University is free

The lesson is free. It always will be.

All of the teaching in this guide comes from the free “Scoring and Slipping a Join” lesson, and that lesson is not going anywhere.

A handle coming off in the kiln feels like bad luck. It almost never is.

It is a note from the clay about what happened at your table a few days earlier, and it is written on the two broken faces.

Practice on something you do not mind losing, and read every break you get.

Dan Pearce, founder of The Clay Hole
The series

Build a little pottery library

Every printable guide in The Clay Hole University series takes one free lesson and rebuilds it for paper, with workbook pages, a glossary and a quiz with a worked answer key. Each one keeps its number for good, so a guide you buy today is the same guide in the same place next year.

Put any five printable guides in your cart and the cheapest one is on us. Put in nine and the two cheapest are on us. It happens automatically at checkout, no code to remember.

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Sits next to

Three lessons that pick up where this one leaves off

Each one is free to read online, and the codes in the guide take you straight there.

Questions

Good to know

How is this different from the free lesson?
The teaching is the same, and the free lesson is not going anywhere. The guide is that teaching rebuilt for paper: a learning dashboard at the front, numbered moves, a log to write in, a one page card, a glossary and a quiz with an answer key that explains every answer.
What is the difference between scoring and slipping?
Scoring cuts grooves into both faces so the join has something to grip. Slipping brushes clay thinned to about the thickness of heavy cream down into those grooves, so the two pieces can be pressed and blended into one. Slip without scoring gives no grip at all, and scoring without slip leaves nothing to bond.
Does it cover attaching handles?
Yes, as the hardest version of the same nine moves: a small contact patch carrying a lever, with two attachment points that dry at different rates. It also covers slab seams, coils and small applied pieces such as sprigs and feet.
What do I need besides clay?
A needle tool or a serrated rib to score, a soft brush, a wooden modeling tool to blend, a small pot of slip made from the same clay, and a thin coil for the inside corner. The guide lists all of it on the dashboard.
Can I use any clay?
Use the same clay body for both pieces and for the slip. Different bodies shrink by different amounts, so a join between two of them pulls itself apart. The guide explains why, and how to make slip from your own clay in a few minutes.
Is this too early for me?
It is marked Beginner. If you can roll a coil or a slab you can do every move in it. What takes practice is the judgment, how wet is wet enough and when a seam is really gone, and the log is there to help you build it.
Do I need a fancy printer?
No. It is set for an ordinary home or office printer on regular US Letter paper, with nothing important near the edges, so normal printer margins cut nothing off.
Does it print in black and white?
Yes. Nothing in it depends on color to make sense: the text, the tick boxes and the tables are black on white, and color is used for headings and small labels.
Can I print just part of it?
Yes, and most people do. The join card and the log are the two worth having by the table. They are numbered pages like any other, so you can print those and leave the rest on a screen.
Can I read it on a screen instead?
Yes. It is an ordinary PDF and it reads fine on a tablet or a phone. The workbook pages are the ones that want paper, because you write on them.
How does delivery work?
It is a digital download. The link arrives by email and on the order confirmation page right after checkout, so you can have it printed and beside the table the same evening.
What happens if the guide is updated?
Every edition carries its version number on the last page. When we correct or improve one, the new edition replaces the old one in the shop, and we can send the updated link to anybody who already bought it.
Can I share it?
It is licensed for your own use. Print as many copies for yourself as you like, on as many of your own devices as you like. Please do not pass the file on, upload it or use it with a class or a group without asking us first.

Score both faces, slip both faces, blend until it is gone

Match the wetness, score and slip both faces, press until a bead squeezes out, blend until you cannot find the seam, then dry it slowly. Those moves take a few minutes and decide whether the join is still shut when the piece comes out of the kiln. The guide keeps them in front of you at the table.

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